A mammography system has an x-ray source, a detector and a compression plate arranged in the beam path between the source and the detector. The x-ray source, the detector and the compression plate are mounted on a vertical column such that they respectively pivot around separate pivot axes. The three pivot axes are spaced apart from one another and oriented substantially parallel to one another and substantially perpendicular to a surface normal of the detector. The x-ray source and the compression plate are held on the vertical column such that they can be displaced in a plane oriented approximately vertical to their pivot axes. The mammography system is operable to obtain two sets of tomosynthesis data respectively with different tube-to-detector distances.